Nursing bras

Not sure if this is the right place to post this... I'm struggling with using nursing bras (5 week old dd ebf). I have two crop top style sleep bras as well as two 'proper' nursing bras where you unclip and fold down the fronts. I find the sleep bras really easy to use but I worry they aren't giving me proper support in the day (I am about a DD but was an A pre-pregnancy so it's a bit of a new area to me!) The unclip ones I just find it really awkward to fold the flap right out of the way without getting milk on it whilst feeding. Am I missing something?? If they are genuinely awkward, would it be bad to just wear the sleep bras all the time or is there another alternative?

I know what you mean, I wear bras from jojo Maman Bebe, there like sleep bras but are more bra like with gold down - not sure that makes sense! But they are so comfy! The fold down does get in the way, I try to position the breast pad in the way but regularly forget! Do you feel your milk has settled? I too am small-boobed but found they settled down when my supply established.

I'm not sure if my supply has settled, how do I know? I try to tuck a muslin over the folded bit of bra but it's just so bulky, I have to make a concerted effort to get it out of the way of the nipple as it is. I feel like a breast pad would just poke up in the way?

I am like you, I was small busted before pregnancy, and went up to a 28 DD/E after my milk came in. I never used to wear bras so just that adjustment was difficult but like you I don't really like the unclipping ones. My favourites that I have are from a brand called Kindred Bravely, I got them off amazon, you just pull them to the side to feed as they are stretchy cotton and they provide adequate support for me, they have a pretty comprehensive size chart, I got a size Small-Busty which I found useful as so few feeding bras come with small back sizes and larger cup. I think it's inevitable you will get milk on the bra whatever style you get, just buy relatively cheaply and have about 5 on rotation.

I'm just wearing the crop top style ones. I've bought the workout style ones. I figure they are designed to support boobs being bounced around so it will be fine! I can't be doing with the proper ones.

If you're on Facebook, the group 'can I breastfeed in it' is really good for help with bras and other breastfeeding friendly clothes. If you're comfortable in the sleep ones, I would just wear them all the time.

It's best to wear the soft crop top type bras for about the first 12 weeks until your supply has settled down.

After that get yourself on to the "Boob or Bust" Facebook group to get yourself fitted properly for an underwired bra. Read the pinned post and pop your measurements in to the calculator to get your size and the admin on there are lovely and will help you with the fit. Once you have a lovely bra that fits get yourself a nursing bra conversion kit from eBay (Suckle Store) and convert pretty bra in to a nursing bra, ta da!

I had this exact problem! The stiffer ones that offer support just got in the way far too much. They didn't fold over without pinging back. I stopped using them and just used sleep bras or unpadded ones. They looked pretty terrible on me though.

The anita nursing bras are great. I got mine from Nordstrom here in the US but they have them heavily discounted on amazon. They are now made in Thailand but used to be made either in Austria or Germany. Very good quality.

I never got on with the drop cup ones as they got in the way and were impossible to re-attach discretely. Also, the front centre was high for support which meant they did not come down properly on a small person with big boobs. Then you have to lift boob over acres of wonky fabric. Used to get zip cup ones (zip where you would usually have underwires) which were brilliant, providing you perfected the technique of putting your thumb behind the zip when you fastened them. Can't find them now.

I absolutely hated the clip style bras. After trying a multitude (and spending a fortune on some of them) I ended up buying some stretchy crop top style ones from Primark and they were excellent - used them for 18 months with no problems.

This time around Primark didn't have any but found very similar in Asda for just £6. DC2 isn't here yet, but they're great so far and have decent support (I'm usually a C cup, probably an F now) and have no reason to believe that they won't be just as handy for feeding.

I found ease of access differed massively depending on the bra. Tried loads of different ones first time round and discovered the best one for easy access, comfort and not looking as hideous as many of them do was this one.

Second time round I ditched all of them apart from the above and bought a few more in this style but different colours. They were great.

I wore breast pads all the time for at least the first few months or so and they used to easily fold down over drop down bit to avoid wet patches resulting from over enthusiastic supply/guzzling in early days without getting in the way.

I've found in the early days milk would leak over the folded over/down cups too (still does occasionally when my now 9mo pulls off quickly to nosey at something she's heard behind her, but now it's a few drips rather than a jet!), but I got around it by tucking a thick muslin between my boob and the bra like a napkin. Simple but effective, and easy to lift up the extra fabric to clamp over to stem the jets of milk when baby unlatches unexpectedly.

Going back a bit for me, but would have to remove pad, fold down, then would always have to tuck a terry cloth under boob or would have a cold, wet cup to fold up after. Yuk.Horrified at the idea of underwires in a feeding bra! Everything in me screams that this is not a good idea.

Underwires in a nursing bra are fine once supply has settled down - and this is the important bit - you've been properly fitted by Bravissimo or similar using the correct measuring technique - that way there's no risk of wires pressing on milk ducts at all. For some of us underwired bras are the only way we'll feel comfortable - I'm 30 HH for example, I'd have given up feeding by now if I'd had to struggle with non wired or heaven forbid crop top style bras.

Underwire bras are completely fine for nursing as long as fitted correctly.A lot of people struggle to find a good fit with nursing bras and a well fitted underside bra can be much better than a poorly fitted nursing bra.